Police identify father, children killed in North Richland Hills murder-suicide

Updated Dec. 13 at 7 a.m.: Revised to include photos of victims and GoFundMe information. 

Two children were killed by their father in an apparent murder-suicide Saturday morning in North Richland Hills, police said.

The man and two children were found shot to death at a home in the 7400 block of South College Circle.

The children's mother called police about 7:15 a.m. and said she found them dead with their father, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. She was not injured.

Police believe 36-year-old Chris Dawson shot the children before turning a shotgun on himself.

The two children were a 9-year-old Luke Dawson and 5-year-old Aubrey Dawson.

Police said the department had no prior calls or history with the address.

A GoFundMe campaign was created to help the children's mother Rachel Dawson.

Neighbor Denise Albino, 57, has lived in the neighborhood over 20 years and the residence had been vacant for several months, she told the Star Telegram.

"Oh my God, those poor babies," she said. "I don't understand why people do this kind of thing."

She woke up to see the home surrounded by police cars, but she wasn't sure what happened until her nephew told her what he saw on television news.

"I didn't know them," Albino said to the newspaper. "I would see the kids playing basketball all the time but I never really got a chance to speak with them."

The home where the incident happened was lined with Christmas lights and had inflatable decorations on the lawn.

"I just feel sorry, sorry for the whole family," Albino said to WFAA-TV (Channel 8).

Neighbor Karen Banner said she had previously seen the kids playing soccer in the front yard.

"I never did see the dad," Banner said to WFAA-TV. "I only saw the mother with the little kids, picking them up, taking them to soccer games."

Albino also thought the children's mother was a single parent.

"I never saw the man," Albino said. "Never."